when he thinks that the air, which assists if we allow that the afflictions of good men respiration, conveys epidemical diseases, and are profitable to them, and that, in many imperceptible poisons; that aliments which cases, prosperity would be fatal to them: if nourish us are often our bane; that the ani- we grant, that the present is a transitory mals that serve us often turn savage against state, and that this momentary life will be us; when he observes the perfidiousness of succeeded by an immortal state; if we recolsociety, the mutual industry of mankind in lect the many similar truths which the gospel tormenting each other; the arts which they abundantly declares; can we find, in human invent to deprive one another of life; when miseries, and in the necessity of dying, objec he attempts to reckon up the innumerable tions against the goodness of the Creator? maladies that consume us; when he considers Do the prosperities of bad men, and the death, which bows the loftiest heads, dissolves adversities of the good, confuse our ideas the firmest cements, and subverts the best of God? With the principles of the gospel founded fortunes: when he makes these re- I can remove all the difficulties which these flections, he will be apt to doubt, whether it different conditions produce in the mind of be goodness, or the contrary attribute, that the disciple of natural religion. If the prin inclines the Author of our being to give us ciples of the gospel be admitted, if we be existence. When the disciple of natural reli- persuaded that the tyrant, whose prosperity gion reads those reverses of fortune of which astonishes us, fulfils the counsel of God; if history furnishes a great many examples; ecclesiastical history assures us that Herods when he sees tyrants fall from a pinnacle of and Pilates themselves contributed to the esgrandeur; wicked men often punished by tablishment of that very Christianity which their own wickedness; the avaricious pun- they meant to destroy; especially, if we adished by the objects of their avarice; the am- mit a state of future rewards and punishbitious by those of their ambition; the volup-ments; can the obscurity in which Provituous by those of their voluptuousness; when dence has been pleased to wrap up some of he perceives that the laws of virtue are so its designs, raise doubts about the justice of essential to public happiness, that without the Creator? them society would become a banditti, at least, that society is more or less happy or miserable, according to its looser or closer attachment to virtue; when he considers all these cases, he will probably conclude, that the Author of this universe is a just and holy Being. But, when he sees tyranny establish- II. Let us consider these two disciples exed, vice enthroned, humility in confusion, amining the nature of man and endeavourpride wearing a crown, and love to holiness ing to know themselves. The disciple of nasometimes exposing people to many and in-tural religion cannot know mankind: he cantolerable calamities; he will not be able to not perfectly understand the nature, the oblijustify God, amidst the darkness in which his gations, the duration of man. equity is involved in the government of the world.

But, of all these mysteries, can one be proposed which the gospel does not unfold; or, at least, is there one on which it does not give us some principles which are sufficient to conciliate it with the perfections of the Creator, how opposite soever it may seem?

In regard then to the first object of contemplation, the perfection of the nature of God, revealed religion is infinitely superior to natural religion; the disciple of the first religion is infinitely wiser than the pupil of the last.

1. The disciple of natural religion can ouly imperfectly know the nature of man, the difference of the two substances of which he is composed. His reason, indeed, may speculate the matter, and he may perceive that there is no relation between motion and thought, between the dissolution of a few fibres and violent sensations, of pain, between an agitation of humours and profound reflections; he may infer from two different ef fects, that there ought to be two different causes, a cause of motion, and a cause of sensation, a cause of agitating humours, and cause of reflecting, that there is a body, and that there is a spirit.

Do the disorders of the world puzzle the disciple of natural religion, and produce difficulties in his mind? With the principles of the gospel I can solve them all. When it is remembered, that this world has been de filed by the sin of man, and that he is there-a fore an object of divine displeasure; when the principle is admitted, that the world is But, in my opinion, those philosophers, not now what it was when it came out of who are best acquainted with the nature of the hands of God; and that, in comparison man, cannot account for two difficulties, with its pristine state, it is only a heap of that are proposed to them, when, on the ruins, the truly magnificent, but actually ruin- mere principles of reason, they affirm, that ous heap of an edifice of incomparable beau- man is composed of the two substances of ty, the rubbish of which is far more proper matter and mind. I ask, first, Do you so to excite our grief for the loss of its pri- well understand matter, are your ideas of it mitive grandeur, than to suit our present so complete, that you can affirm, for certain, wants. When these reflections are made, it is capable of nothing more than this, or can we find any objections, in the disorders of that? Are you sure it implies a contradicthe world, against the wisdom of our Creator?tion to affirm, it has one property which has Are the miseries of man, and is the fatal escaped your observation? and, consequently, necessity of death, in contemplation? With can you actually demonstrate, that the esthe principles of the gospel I solve the diffi-sence of matter is incompatible with thought? culties which these sad objects produce in the Since, when you cannot discover the union mind of the disciple of natural religion. If of an attribute with a subject, you instantly the principles of Christianity be admitted, conclude, that two attributes, which seem to

you to have no relation, suppose two different,
subjects: and, since you conclude, that ex-
tention and thought compose two different
subjects, body and soul, because you can dis-
cover no natural relation between extent and
thought if I discover a third artribute,
which appears to me entirely unconnected
with both extent and thought, I shall have
a right, in my turn, to admit three subjects
in man; matter, which is the subject of ex-
tent: mind, which is the subject of thought;
and a third subject, which belongs to the at-
tribute that seems to me to have no relation
to either matter or mind. Now I do know
such an attribute; but I do not know to
which of your two subjects I ought to refer
it: I mean sensation. I find it in my nature,
and I experience it every hour; but I am
altogether at a loss whether I ought to attri-
bute it to body or to spirit. I perceive no
more natural and necessary relation between
sensation and motion, than between sensa-
tion and thought. There are, then, on your
principle, three substances in man: one
the substratum, which is the subject of ex-
tension; another, which is the subject of
thought; and a third, which is the subject
of sensation: or rather, I suspect there is
only one substance in man, which is known
to me very imperfectly, to which all these
attributes belong, and which are united to-
gether, although I am not able to discover
their relation.

Revealed religion removes these difficulties, and decides the question. It tells us that there are two beings in man, and, if I my express myself so, two different men, theaterial man, and the immaterial man. The Scriptures speak on these principles thus The dust shall return to the earth as its; this is the material man: 'The spirshall return to God who gave it, Eccl. ii. 7; this is the immaterial man. Fear not them which kill the body,' that is to say, the material man: 'fear him which is able destroy the soul,' Matt. x. 28, that is the immaterial man. We are willing to be absent from the body,' that is, from the material man; and to be present with the Lord,' 2 Cor. v. 8, that is to say, to have the immaterial man disembodied. They stoned Stephen,' that is, the material man: calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,' Acts vii. 59, that is to say, receive the immaterial man.

the Author of our being meant to forbid vice, and to enjoin virtue. But is there no room for complaint? Is there nothing specious in the following objections? As, in spite of all my endeavours to destroy virtuous dispositions, I cannot help respecting virtue; you infer, that the Author of my being intended I should be virtuous: so, as in spite of all my endeavours to eradicate vice, I cannot help loving vice, have I not reason for inferring, in my turn, that the Author of my being designed I should be vicious; or, at least, that he cannot justly impute guilt to me for performing those actions which proceed from some principles that were born with me? Is there no show of reason in this famous sophism? Reconcile the God of nature with the God of religion. Explain how the God of religion can forbid what the God of nature inspires; and how he who follows those dictates, which the God of nature inspires, can be punished for so doing by the God of religion.

The gospel unfolds this mystery. It attributes this seed of corruption to the depravity of nature. It attributes the respect we feel for virtue to the remains of the image of God in which we were formed, and which can never be entirely effaced. Because we were born in sin, the gospel concludes that we ought to apply all our attentive endeavours to eradicate the seeds of corruption. And, because the image of the Creator is partly erased from our hearts, the gospel concludes that we ought to give ourselves wholly to the retracing of it, and so to answer the excellence of our extraction.

3. A disciple of natural religion can obtain only an imperfect knowledge of the duration of man, whether his soul be immortal, or whether it be involved in the ruin of matter. Reason, I allow, advances some solid arguments in proof of the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. For what necessity is there for supposing that the soul, which is a spiritual, indivisible, and immaterial being, that constitutes a whole, and is a distinct being, although united to a portion of matter, should cease to exist when its union with the body is dissolved? A positive act of the Creator is necessary to the annihilation of a substance. The annihilating of a being that subsists, requires an act of power similar to that which gave it existence at first. Now, far from having any ground to believe that God will cause his power to intervene to an2. The disciple of natural religion can ob- nihilate our souls, every thing that we know tain only an imperfect knowledge of the obli- persuades us, that he himself has engraven gations, or duties of man. Natural religion characters of immortality on them, and that may indeed conduct him to a certain point, he will preserve them for ever. Enter into and tell him that he ought to love his bene- thy heart, frail creature! see, feel, consider factor, and various similar maxims. But is those grand ideas, those immortal designs, natural religion, think you, sufficient to ac- that thirst for existing, which a thousand count for that contrariety, of which every man ages cannot quench, and in these lines and is conscious, that opposition between inclina-points behold the finger of the Creator writtion and obligation? A very solid argument, I grant, in favour of moral rectitude, arises from observing, that to whatever degree a man may carry his sin, whatever efforts he may make to eradicate those seeds of virtue from his heart which nature has sown there, he cannot forbear venerating virtue, and recoiling at vice. This is certainly a proof that

ing a promise of immortality to thee. But, how solid soever these arguments may be, however evident in themselves, and striking to a philosopher, they are objectionable, because they are not popular, but above vulgar minds, to whom the bare terms, spirituality and existence, are entirely barbarous, and convey no meaning at all.

Moreover, the union between the operations of the soul, and those of the body, is so close, that all the philosophers in the world cannot certainly determine, whether the operations of the body ceasing, the operations of the soul do not cease with them. I see a body in perfect health, the mind therefore is sound. The same body is disordered, and the mind is disconcerted with it. The brain is filled, and the soul is instantly confused. The brisker the circulation of the blood is, the quicker the ideas of the mind are, and the more extensive its knowledge. At length death comes, and dissolves all the parts of the body; and how difficult is it to persuade one's self that the soul, which was affected with every former motion of the body, will not be dissipated by its entire dissolution!

Are they the vulgar only to whom the philosophical arguments of the immortality of the soul appear deficient in evidence? Do not superior geniuses require, at least an explanation of what rank you assign to beasts, on the principle that nothing capable of ideas and conceptions can be involved in a dissolution of matter? Nobody would venture to affirm now, in an assembly of philosophers, what was some time ago maintained with great warmth, that beasts are mere self-moving machines. Experience seems to demonstrate the falsity of the metaphysical reasonings which have been proposed in favour of this opinion; and we cannot observe the actions of beasts without being inclined to infer one of these two consequences: either the spirit of man is mortal, like his body, or the souls of beasts are immortal like those of mankind.

by nature. Thus the disciple of revealed religion does not float between doubt and assurance, hope and fear, as the disciple of nature does. He is not obliged to leave the most interesting question that poor mortals can agitate undecided; whether their souls perish with their bodies, or survive their ruins. He does not say, as Cyrus said to his children: 'I know not how to persuade myself that the soul lives in this mortal body, and ceases to be when the body expires, I am more inclined to think, that it acquires after death more penetration and purity." He does not say, as Socrates said to his judg es: And now we are going, I to suffer death, and you to enjoy life. God only knows which is best.'t He does not say, as Cicero said, speaking on this important article: 'I do not pretend to say, that what I affirm is as infallible as the Pythian oracle, I speak only by conjecture. The disciple of revelation, authorized by the testimony of Jesus Christ, who hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,' 2 Tim. i. 10, boldly affirms, Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. We, that are in this tabernacle, do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him, against that day,' 2 Cor. iv. 16; v. 4; and 2 Tim. i. 12.

Acts xvii. 27, the grand mean of reconciliation, which God has given to the Church; mean the sacrifice of the cross. Reason, indeed, discovers that man is guilty; as the confessions and acknowledgments which the heathens made of their crimes prove. It d cerns that a sinner deserves punishment, as the remorse and fear with which their consciences were often excruciated, demonstrate. It presumes, indeed, that God will yield to the entreaties of his creatures, as their prayers, and temples, and altars testify. It even goes so far as to perceive the necessity of satisfy ing divine justice; this their sacrifices, this their burnt-offerings, this their human victims, this the rivers of blood that flowed on their altars, show.

III. We are next to consider the disciple of natural religion, and the disciple of revealed religion, at the tribunal of God as peniten soliciting for pardon. The former cannot Revelation dissipates all our obscurities, find, even by feeling after it, in natural reliand teaches us clearly, and without any may-gion, according to the language of St. Paul, be, that God wills our immortality. It carries our thoughts forward to a future state, as to a fixed period, whither the greatest part of the promises of God tend. It commands us, indeed, to consider all the blessings of this life, the aliments that nourish us, the rays which enlighten us, the air we breathe, sceptres, crowns, and kingdoms, as effects of the liberality of God, and as grounds of our gratitude. But, at the same time, it requires us to surmount the most magnificent earthly objects. It commands us to consider light, air, and aliments, crowns, sceptres and kingdoms, as unfit to constitute the felicity of a soul created in the image of the blessed God, 1 Tim. i. 11, and with whom the blessed God has formed a close and intimate union. It assures us, that an age of life cannot fill the wish of But how likely soever all these speculations duration, which it is the noble prerogative of may be, they form only a systematic body an immortal soul to form. It does not without a head; for no positive promise of ground the doctrine of immortality on meta- pardon from God himself belongs to them. physical speculations, nor on complex argu- The mystery of the cross is entirely invisible; ments, uninvestigable by the greatest part of for only God could reveal that, because only mankind, and which always leave some doubts God could plan, and only he could execute in the minds of the ablest philosophers. The that profound relief. How could human reagospel grounds the doctrine on the only son, alone, and unassisted, have discovered principle that can support the weight with the mystery of redemption, when, alas! after which it is encumbered. The principle which an infallible God had revealed it, reason is I mean is the will of the Creator, who hav-absorbed in its depth, and needs all its submising created our souls at first by an act of his sion to receive it as an article of faith? will, can either eternally preserve them, or absolutely annihilate thein, whether they be material or spiritual, mortal or immortal,

* Xenophon. Cyrop.

Platon. Apol. Socrat ad fin.
Ciceron. Tusc. Quæst. lib. i.

son between a dying Pagan and a dying Christian will show this. I consider a Pagan, in his dying-bed, speaking to himself what follows: On which side soever I consider my state, I perceive nothing but trouble and despair. If I observe the forerunners of death. I see awful symptoms, violent sickness and intolerable pain, which surround my sick-bed, and are the first scenes of the bloody tragedy. As to the world, my dearest objects disappear; my closest connexions are dissolving; my most specious titles are

But, that which natural religion cannot attain, revealed religion clearly discovers. Revelation exhibits a God-man, dying for the sins of mankind, and setting grace before every penitent sinner; grace for all mankind. The schools have often agitated the questions, and sometimes very indiscreetly, Whether Jesus Christ died for all mankind, or only for a small number? Whether his blood were shed for all who hear the gospel, or for those only who believe it? We will not dispute these points now; but we will venture to affirm, that there is not an individual of all our hear-effacing; my noblest privileges are vanishers, who has not a right to say to himself, If . I believe, I shall be saved; I shall believe, if I endeavour to believe. Consequently every individual has a right to apply the benefits of the death of Christ to himself. The gospel reveals grace, which pardons the most atrocious crimes, those that have the most fatal influences. Although you have denied Christ with Peter, betrayed him with Judas, persecuted him with Saul; yet the blood of a God-man is sufficient to obtain your pardon, if you be in the covenant of redemption: Grace, which is accessible at all times, at every instant of life. Wo be to you, my brethren; wo be to you, if abusing this reflection, you delay your return to God till the last moments of your lives, when your repentance will be difficult, not to say impracticable and impossible! But it is always certain that God every instant opens the treasures of his mercy, when sinners return to him by sincere repentance; grace, capable of terminating all the melancholy thoughts that are produced by the fear of being abandoned by God in the midst of our race, and of having the work of salvation left imperfect; for, after he has given us a present so magnificent, what can he refuse? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?' Rom. viii. 32. Grace, so clearly revealed in our Scriptures, that the most accurate reasoning, heresy the most extravagant, and infidelity the most obstinate, cannot enervate its declarations; for the death of Christ may be considered in different views it is a sufficient confirmation of his doctrine; it is a perfect pattern of patience; it is the most magnanimous degree of extraordinary excellences that can be imagined: but the gospel very seldom presents it to us in any of these views, it leaves them to our own perception; but when it speaks of his death. it usually speaks of it as an expiatory sacrifice. Need we repeat here a number of formal texts, and express decisions, on this matter? Thanks be to God, we are preaching to a Christian auditory, who make the death of the Redeemer the foundation of faith! The gospel, then, assures the penitent sinner of pardon. Zeno, Epicurus, Pythagoras, Socrates, Porch, Academy, Lyceum, what have you to offer to your disciples equal to this promise of the gospel?

IV. But that which principally displays the prerogatives of the Christian above those of the philosopher is an all-sufficient provision against the fear of death. A compari

ing away; a dismal curtain falls between my
eyes and all the decorations of the universe.
In regard to my body, it is a mass without
motion or life; my tongue is about to be
condemned to eternal silence; my eyes to
perpetual darkness; all the organs of my
body to entire dissolution; and the misera-
ble remains of my carcass to lodge in the
grave, and to become food for worms. If I
consider my soul, I scarcely know whether
it be immortal; and could I demonstrate its
natural immortality, I should not be able to
say, whether my Creator would display his
attributes in preserving, or in destroying it;
whether my wishes for immortality be the
dictates of nature, or the language of sin.
If I consider my past life, I have a witness
within me, attesting that my practice has
been less than my knowledge, how small so-
ever the latter has been; and that the abun-
dant depravity of my heart has thickened
the darkness of my mind. If I consider fu-
turity, I think I discover, through many
thick clouds, a future state; my reason sug-
gests that the Author of nature has not giv-
en me a soul so sublime in thought, and so
expansive in desire, merely to move in this
little orb for a moment: but this is nothing
but conjecture; and if there be another eco-
nomy after this, should I be less miserable
than I am here? One moment I hope for
annihilation, the next I shudder with the fear
of being annihilated; my thoughts and de-
sires are at war with each other; they rise,
they resist, they destroy one another.' Such
is the dying heathen. If a few examples of
those who have died otherwise be adduced,
they ought not to be urged in evidence
against what we have advanced; for they
are rare, and very probably deceptive, their
outward tranquillity being only a conceal-
ment of trouble within. Trouble is the
greater for confinement within, and for an
affected appearance without. As we ought
not to believe that philosophy has rendered
men insensible of pain, because some philo-
sophers have maintained that pain is no evil,
and have seemed to triumph over it; so nei-
ther ought we to believe that it has disarined
death in regard to the disciples of natural
religion, because some have affirmed that
death is not an object of fear. After all, if
some Pagans enjoyed a real tranquillity at
death, it was a groundless tranquillity to
which reason contributed nothing at all.

O! how differently do Christians die! How does revealed religion triumph over the religion of nature in this respect! May each of our hearers be a new evidence of this ar

ticle! The whole that troubles an expiring heathen, revives a Christian in his dying bed.

Thus speaks the dying Christian: When I consider the awful symptoms of death, and the violent agonies of dissolving nature, they appear to me as medical preparations, sharp but salutary; they are necessary to detach me from life, and to separate the remains of inward depravity from me Besides, I shall not be abandoned to my own frailty; but my patience and constancy will be proportional to my sufferings; and that powerful arm which has supported me through life, will uphold me under the pressure of death. If I consider my sins, many as they are, I am invulnerable; for I go to a tribunal of mercy, where God is reconciled, and justice is satisfied. If I consider my body, I perceive I am putting off a mean and corruptible habit, and putting on robes of glory. Fall, fall, ye imperfect senses, ye frail organs; fall, house of clay, into your original dust; you will be 6 sown in corruption, but raised in incorruption; sown in dishonour, but raised in glory; sown in weakness, but raised in power,' 1 Cor. xv. 42. If I consider my soul, it is passing, I see, from slavery to freedom. I shall carry with me that which thinks and reflects. I shall carry with me the delicacy of taste, the harmony of sounds, the beauty of colours, the fragrance of odoriferous smells. I shall surmount heaven and earth, nature and all terrestrial things, and my ideas of all their beauties will multiply and expand. If I consider the future economy to which I go, I have, I own, very inadequate notions of it; but my incapacity is the ground of my expectation. Could I perfectly comprehend it, it would argue its resemblance to some of the present objects of my senses, or its minute proportion to the present operations of my mind. If worldly dignities and grandeurs, if accumulated treasures, if the enjoyments of the most refined voluptuousness were to represent to me celestial felicity, I should suppose that, partaking of their nature they partook of their vanity. But, if nothing can here represent the future state, it is because that state surpasses every other. My ardour is increased by my imperfect knowledge of it. My knowledge and virtue, I am certain, will be perfected; I know I shall comprehend truth, and obey order; I know I shall be free from all evils, and in possession of all good; I shall be present with God, I know, and with all the happy spirits who surround his throne; and this perfect state, I am sure, will continue for ever and ever.' Such are the all-sufficient supports which revealed religion affords against the fear of death. Such are the meditations of a dying Christian; not of one whose whole Christianity consists of dry speculations, which have no influence over his practice; but of one who applies his knowledge to relieve the real wants of his life.

1. The ideas of the ancient philosophesr concerning natural religion were not collected into a body of doctrine. One philosopher had one idea, another studious man had another idea; ideas of truth and virtue, therefore, lay dispersed. Who does not see the pre-eminence of revelation on this article? No human capacity either has been, or would ever have been, equal to the noble conception of a perfect body of truth. There is no genius so narrow as not to be capable of proposing some clear truth, some excellent maxim: but to lay down principles, and to perceive at once a chain of consequences, these are the efforts of great geniuses; this capability is philosophical perfection. If this axiom be incontestable, what a fountain of wisdom does the system of Christianity argue? It presents us, in one lovely body of perfect symmetry, all the ideas we have enumerated. One idea supposes another idea; and the whole is united in a manner so compact, that it is impossible to alter one particle without defacing the beauty of all.

2. Pagan philosophers never had a system of natural religion comparable with that of modern philosophers, although the latter glory in their contempt of revelation. Modern philosophers have derived the clearest and best parts of their systems from the very revelation which they affect to despise. We grant, the doctrines of the perfections of God, of providence, and of a future state, are perfectly conformable to the light of reason. A man who should pursue rational tracks of knowledge to his utmost power, would discover, we own, all these doctrines: but it is one thing to grant that these doctrines are conformable to reason, and it is another to affirm that reason actually discovered them. It is one thing to allow, that a man, who should pursue rational tracks of knowledge to his utmost power, would discover all these doctrines; and it is another to pretend, that any man has pursued these tracks to the utmost, and has actually discovered them. It was the gospel that taught mankind the use of their reason. It was the gospel that assisted men to form a body of natural religion. Modern philosophers avail themselves of these aids; they form a body of natural religion by the light of the gospel, and then they attribute to their own penetration what they derive from foreign aid.

3. What was most rational in the natural religion of the Pagan philosophers was mixed with fancies and dreams. There was not a single philosopher who did not adopt some absurdity, and communicate it to his disciples. One taught that every being was animated with a particular soul, and on this absurd hypothesis he pretended to account for the phenomena of nature. Another took every star for a god, and thought the soul a vapour, that passed from one body to another, expiating in the body of a beast the sins that were committed in that of a man. One at

Christianity then, we have seen, is superior to natural religion, in these four re-tributed the creation of the world to a blind spects. To these we will add a few more chance, and the government of all events in reflections in farther evidence of the superi- it to an inviolable fate. Another affirmed ority of revealed religion to the religion of the eternity of the world, and said, there was no period in eternity in which heaven

nature.